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Wichita State Receives $12M Cash Gift, Largest In School's History

Nadya Faulx
/
KMUW
Wayne Woolsey speaks during an event Wednesday at Wichita State announcing his family's $12 million cash gift.

Wichita State University on Wednesday announced it has received the largest, single cash gift in the history.

Oil producer Wayne Woolsey and his wife, Kay, donated $12 million toward WSU’s ongoing capital campaign.

“Kay’s been here all her life, and I’ve been here for 40 years, so we want to support the community and help WSU students to be successful," Wayne Woolsey said during a media event at WSU on Wednesday.

The gift includes $2 million to support the WSU Department of Geology. Another $10 million will go toward building a new home for the Barton School of Business, which is currently located in the aging Clinton Hall.

With the gift, "We're in a much better position to show students why they should choose the Barton School of Business for their education," said Anand Desai, the school's dean.

The 136,000-square-foot building will be named for the couple and will be located on WSU's new Innovation Campus. Groundbreaking is expected in 2019.

Follow Nadya Faulx on Twitter @NadyaFaulx. To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.